


Don't worry.

by This-is-my-otp (Zetalial)



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:32:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22035613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zetalial/pseuds/This-is-my-otp
Summary: Cold weather and a mission going badly leaves Ed in a bad condition, which he tries to hide. Fortunately, he's got people looking out for him.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Edward Elric & Maes Hughes
Comments: 3
Kudos: 117





	Don't worry.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this for a secret santa exchange on tumblr. I love writing about a hurt, attempting to hide his pain Ed being cared for by the people he maybe doesn't realise are his family.

“Are you alright?”

Ed clenched his fists, feeling frustrated. It was not the first time Al had asked him that today. What was he doing wrong? He tried to keep up his regular furious pace with his head held high. He did not like that Al was somehow picking up that something was wrong.

Okay, yes, there were several things wrong with him. He’d been forced to skip a couple meals over the last few days and was beginning to feel the effects. He also hadn’t slept well last night. And it was absolutely freezing. This was all compounded by the fact that their last mission had been a complete failure and he was pretty badly bruised from their latest skirmish.

It was that last thought that encouraged him to keep moving. How could he rest now, without any hint of success? How could he allow himself to complain about his physical limitations when his brother didn’t even get to experience them? No, he wasn’t going to tell Al that anything was wrong - these were just minor inconveniences and he didn’t need Al to worry about him.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just this atrocious weather, slowing us down,” Ed grumbled in reply, trying to keep his voice steady.

He wasn’t sure how convincing he was, but fortunately, Al didn’t press the issue.

And he wasn’t really lying either - because the stupidly cold day was bad as well. His automail joints seemed to burn and his leg in particular kept locking up, making the simple act of walking a chore. It didn’t seem to matter how many layers he wore, for the cold always leeched into his metal arm and seared his shoulder.

“How about we visit Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes first?” Al suggested, a twinkle in his soulfire eyes. “I’m sure the Colonel won’t mind waiting for us.”

Ed grinned, feeling a touch more optimistic. That sounded like a plan.

-

“Edward, Alphonse - how good to see you!” It was Gracia who opened the door. “Come in! Come in! You boys push yourselves too hard so close to the holidays.”

Ed sighed in relief at the warm, familiar home. In seconds he had made his way in and collapsed onto the absolutely softest couch while Al did all the polite talking for him.

“Sorry for coming here so suddenly, I hope you’re not too busy?”

“Not at all! We were just having a quiet day in.”

“Then I’m afraid we’ve ruined that - brother doesn’t do quiet,” Al replied wryly.

“Hey! You’re louder than me,” Ed retorted without any real heat.

“Ed! I thought I heard your voice!” Hughes entered the living room shooting him a teasing smile.

“Oh, shut up.” Ed snapped. “Pass me that blanket?”

Beside him, Al let out an audible sigh, even as Hughes flung the fluffy blanket over him, still cheerily grinning.

“Sorry about him! He’s just in a bad mood because he’s cold. It’s a pleasure to be here, for the both of us.”

“It’s fine Alphonse - it’s clear Ed’s just making himself at home.”

Ed smiled, beginning to feel more relaxed as he wrapped the blankets more firmly around him. This was nice. Hughes didn’t have any expectations for him to meet; he didn’t care about how they looked or that they turned up without warning to steal their warm couches and (hopefully) some food.

They couldn’t stay here forever of course, but sometimes he wished he could, Ed thought, as he watched Gracia talking to Al tenderly, convincing him to sit by the fire. It was so good to know that there were people who could see the soul behind the armour. In their last mission, it hadn’t been so simple.

“Why aren’t you in the office anyway? I thought you were always working,” Al was asking Hughes.

“It does feel like that, sometimes,” Gracia agreed.

“Hey, I’m not that bad! I could say the same about you, you know? You’ve been away for a whole month. I’m taking this whole week off, and you should too.”

As he said this, Hughes sat down right beside him and rested a warm hand on his strained right shoulder. The sudden contact was accompanied by a brief flare of pain. It was all Ed could do to refrain from a hiss.

“Oh no, we couldn’t take a break. We have to keep searching, you know? We’re not much good at being idle.” Al responded politely.

Ed nodded along. Damn, a week-long break sounded nice though. He was dreading travelling in this bleak weather where it seemed eternally dark and wet and cold. Even their underfurnished military dorms sounded inviting.

But if Al wanted to keep going, he couldn’t slow him down over such trivial concerns.

“Somehow I can imagine that,” Hughes said. “You’re troublesome enough in small doses-”

“Don’t call us small!”

“-And you - seriously Ed? - you don’t seem to know how to relax.”

“I am relaxing,” Ed fumed, shooting Hughes his best glare. “You’re not helping.”

But Hughes only started chuckling and, moments later, Gracia was joining in too, a helpless laughter she couldn’t seem to hold in. Ed could only sigh, and decided to just ignore them and focus on warming up his automail. This damned family - he couldn’t even get properly annoyed at them.

“Well feel free to relax here as long as you want - you definitely need to stay long enough to try my apple strudel,” Hughes finally continued.

Ed wasn’t quite certain what a strudel was, but it sounded delicious. And it explained the lovely, warm smells coming from the kitchen. They were definitely staying as long as possible.

“You’re making it?” Al asked.

“He’s trying to impress Elysia.” It was Gracia who answered. “She loves apple pie, you know?”

Homemade apple pie was absolutely delicious.

“Anyway, it has quite a ways to go so why don’t you both go upstairs and get changed?” Gracia suggested, smiling but Ed felt himself frowning as she glanced at Al.

“Oh, no that’s fine. I can’t take this off,” Al replied vaguely, looking over to him for help.

Al hated to lie, Ed knew, but explaining their situation was far worse. “Yeah, don’t worry about it - I could do with a change though,” Ed said quickly.

He untangled himself from his blankets, limbs protesting as he struggled to his feet even as he plastered on a large grin. Much as he hated to do this, delaying was unwise -he needed to check on his injuries and his automail. Best to do it now, before anyone noticed anything was wrong.

His whole body felt heavy and his automail arm wasn’t nearly warm yet but he forced himself up the stairs, and directly into a large bathroom, where he practically collapsed on the tiled floor, feeling drained. How had he even survived the trip from the station to this house without stopping?

Ed ran some hot water; experience had taught him that water was the best way to quickly warm himself, and more importantly his arm, up. It was also far safer to use alchemy to heat water up rather than directly transmuting his arm.

In no time, he had prepared a bath and let out a sigh of relief as he entered. He closed his eyes and just relaxed. This was bliss. The biting cold was finally subsiding.

His chest was still stinging with pain however. The scratches and bruises would need extra attention. Ed sighed, he’d deal with it as best he could now and then they’d eat - food sounded absolutely lovely.

Then they’d have to head to the Military HQ, they’d delayed long enough already - though they’d inevitably have to deal with Mustang’s complaints. And then they would choose another destination and they could only hope the weather wouldn’t get any worse.

But that was to worry about later.

-

Maes Hughes crept up stairs, wondering what he was going to say. He had decided to talk to Ed. The young alchemist was clearly pushing himself too hard and it was going to get him into trouble.

No… it was more than that. He cared. Those boys seemed to trigger some sort of instinct in him - from the moment he’d met the distinctive pair, he’d felt the urge to help them. They’d wormed their way right into his heart in an instant and now he felt responsible for them.

Ed was pushing himself too hard and Maes wanted to help him, to convince him to slow down before he burned himself out. The boys had been given so much independence to do what they needed and that meant they had no one really looking out for them.

Roy cared about them too, Maes knew, but he didn’t seem to know how to properly reach out to them. Maybe he couldn’t - stuck playing the role of their superior officer. And perhaps he sometimes struggled to see past Ed’s bluster.

Maes had nearly been convinced himself, when the two had wandered in. They hadn’t looked particularly worse for wear, cold weather aside. Ed has been alternatively smiling and grouchy and Al hadn’t given any signs that anything was wrong.

But when he’d brushed a hand on Ed’s shoulder, he’d seen the way Ed had flinched slightly and, more importantly, felt the startling cold of Ed’s automail. Sometimes, Maes forgot Ed even had fake limbs - he hadn’t realised how affected by the weather the metal limbs could be.

But obviously they had to be bothering him. And if Ed was trying to keep it hidden, then he was probably in worse shape than he appeared and shouldn’t be heading out into even more danger.

(He shouldn’t be in any danger at all, really. But Maes knew a lost cause when he saw one and he knew there was no chance of getting the very driven pair to back off entirely. Convincing them to take any break when they obviously needed it was hard enough.)

He heard sounds coming from their spare room and poked his head through the open door. He gasped.

“Ed! Are you okay?”

Ed froze. He looked up and shot him a glare. “What are you doing here? Go away.”

(Why did he have to be the type conceal injuries? Why wasn’t he surprised?)

“Ed! You’re bleeding.” He observed, kneeling down beside the boy. Ed had taken off his shirt, leaving his chest, and a plethora of injuries, bare. “What happened to you?”

“It’s not bleeding, it’s just a bit red.” Ed denied, hiding the long gash from view with his flesh hand. “And just a fight; a bit of shrapnel. It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing. Listen, if you need medical supplies, then I’ve got some but that’ll take some time to heal.” Even as he said this, He could see the gash was less bad then he’d initially feared. It looked painful but it didn’t seem to actually be bleeding.

However it also drew his eye to other injuries. Ed’s skin was marked by a number of old bruises and a collection of smaller cuts, even as Ed crouched and tried to hide as much of his skin as possible from view.

“I’m fine - I’m taking care of it.” Ed growled.

(He was doing an alright job - yes. Somehow this just filled him with more dread. How often had he tended to his own injuries?)

And Maes quickly realised he was too close and he was making him uncomfortable. He’d come here to talk, hadn’t he?

“Good,” he replied gently, shuffling back, and Ed relaxed minutely. “But if there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to ask, alright?”

“Fine,” Ed said. It may have just been his attempt to end the conversation but Maes still counted it as progress.

(They didn’t like to ask for help. Why were they so reluctant to extend trust to others?)

“Lovely - And remember that you can ask my lovely Gracia as well if I’m not available - she’s happy to help as well!”

Ed just nodded, and turned to grab his shirt. This revealed a little more skin but Maes managed to stop himself reacting at the sight of a few more bruises. Exactly how bad had that fight gone for him?

“And please consider taking a few days off as well - you and your brother can stay here if you don’t want to stay at the military dorms.”

Ed sighed. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not quitting because of a few bruises.”

(Taking a holiday wasn’t quitting!)

Why couldn’t he see what was good for him? Maes longed to argue, but he could sense it was unlikely to really help. Ed wasn’t going to be convinced with sound reason.

Instead he nodded and stood up once more. “Alright, I’ll leave you alone then. And don’t worry, I won’t mention anything to Al.”

Ed looked up at him in surprise. He offered him a soft smile. “Thanks.”

It wasn’t much but it was all he could do for now. He turned to exit the room. “Wait,” Ed spoke up once more.

“Err… really thanks. I am fine. But thanks,” Ed was ducking his head so he couldn’t make out his expression.

Maes paused. Did that count as Ed opening up to him? No, probably not. Either way…

He turned around once more and quickly knelt down to wrap his arms around him and gave the small boy a gentle hug. “We love you, you know that, right?” he murmured.

Ed didn’t react, but he didn’t draw away either.

————

When the Elric brothers had finally departed, with bright smiles and a generous amount of pastries, Maes picked up his telephone. Roy would be able to convince them to hang around the city for a little longer, if he knew they needed the rest.


End file.
